


Maid of Honor

by w0rm



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Gen, Recovery, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 23:19:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7594333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/w0rm/pseuds/w0rm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You know how weddings go, don't you?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maid of Honor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LumenInFusco](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LumenInFusco/gifts).
  * Inspired by [A Most Unusual Wedding In The New World](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6566527) by [LumenInFusco](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LumenInFusco/pseuds/LumenInFusco). 



> LumenInFusco: this was such a delight to remix, because the original fic was so sumptuous and detailed and vivid, and I just love writing off of that to start with! I hope you like it! 
> 
> Thanks to CL for the last-second beta! 
> 
> Content warning: recovering alcoholics encountering alcohol. There's a lot of that.

Your daughter is getting married today. 

Or your mother. Whatever. She's having a white wedding, she has a gown, you're painting her nails, her best friend is roping her into a corset. Her future wife made that corset by hand, who even does that. You're so, so, happy for her, but. 

Weddings are a tricky thing.

There's the bachelorette party, first off. Jade's the party-arranging maid of honor; she took you and Rose and Jane on a hike to a waterfall and then pulled a six-pack out of her backpack and whipped off her shirt. That was a x9000 combo ROUGH/AWESOME moment. You all went skinny-dipping under the waterfall, and you and Rose bonked your crumpled water bottles together in a mock toast, and shared a look as the others shared their beers. 

Jade also arranged a shower, where there's beer and wine. Where there's ginger beer that burns your lips and makes you feel a little like a real person again. That part helps a little. 

Jade also arranged the rehearsal dinner, where there's wine and cocktails. Where you have to explain to Jane and John's Dad why you're having water. Where they don't even have a root beer or something, just shitty fountain soda. 

It's just... everywhere. There's mimosas at breakfast. Jake is hungover. You know it'll be even harder after the ceremony, and you wish you didn't have this knot in your throat through this whole thing, what's supposed to be a happy week full of parties and love. 

***  
Getting ready, you're feeling dizzy, even though you're not the one who has to get strapped into a rib-compressor. You focus on a small task: you're going to paint every single nail up in this bitch. You have a gorgeous shiny emerald polish that doesn't see enough use, and it's one of the wedding colors, so here you go. 

You start with Rose's toes, while she's still sitting around in leggings and a sweatshirt. She's beastly to try and do this on, always twitching or wiggling and then huffing when it results in a shiny green streak across her toes. You love her, so you persist, greening a dozen little cotton swabs as you clean up your work as you go. Jade uncorks a bottle of wine while you work at this, and you and Rose spare an uneasy glance at it. 

It's fine. It's fine. 

You do Jade's toes next, because she's barefoot anyways and why not. She's less wiggly, seems to know how to still her body wholly. You would've thought it would be the other way around- Jade wriggling and Rose serene, but you guess there's something about Rose's nerves and Jade's phenomenal body awareness or whatever. You can smell Jade's wine where you're sitting. It's a pinot grigio, which you hate, but have been known to drink in tough times. You remember once you took a bottle of pinot grigio into the bath with you, when you were maybe fourteen. You have to breathe carefully, through your mouth, so that you can't smell it anymore. You fan Jade's toenails to dry them, and it blows some of the nail-polish-and-wine smell away from you, thank gog. 

Jane doesn't let you get her toes, because she'll be wearing stockings anyways, so you get Dave's instead. He's stopped by to deliver some important floral-arrangement news (the news: flowers exist. You're glad of it.) and is clearly secretly delighted to be included in bridal-party goings-on. You're extra careful on his toes, which are hilariously identical to Rose's in long-and-boniness, and make him hang around an extra half an hour to let them dry before he's allowed to put his shoes back on. 

You get through it. You get through Dave helping Jade and Jane polish off the wine, you get through the uneasy side-eye that Rose gives the bottle. (God knows she's nervous. God knows she wants something to calm her nerves. You hold her hand for a minute, and she squeezes back tightly.) You get through seeing your mom/daughter all squeezed into what seems like miles of green silk, you get through nudging away the misty tears at the corners of her eyes so you can get her makeup on. 

You had a long discussion of her makeup desires. She's changed her mind a lot, and you've practiced at least three different whole looks on her- a dark smokey eye and dramatic wine-red lipstick, a soft, natural look with nude lips, and what she calls her 'classic gothic trash princess' look, which involves black lipstick and an incredible amount of smudged eyeliner. You settle on something classic- soft eyes, careful wings on the eyeliner, lips a dark red to set off the dress. You know the green is culturally significant for the trolls, that it's all about Kanaya marking Rose as hers, and it strikes you as creepy-sweet in a way that you're sure Rose adores. 

Rose is as fidgety through her fingernails and makeup as she was for her toenails. You keep having to take breaks to let her breathe, flapping her hands at her face as she tries not to tear up again. You've never seen her so emotional- it's super weird, because she doesn't emote on her face at all. She's got a perfect pokerface, the perfect flat-mouth deadpan that makes her look like a magazine model, and seeing her so overtly worked up is just bizarre. (It's always weird, seeing your mom cry. Universal truth.) 

***   
The ceremony is the easy part, though. 

You walk in with Jade to take your place at the front. You wish you could've walked in with Dirk but there's some sort of father-of-the-bride dealie going on that you're not going to argue with. You feel his silent presence behind you the whole walk up, the unearthly good cellist easing your steps as you go. You're already a little misty when you get up there and turn around to face the assembly, and you blink a lot to try and save your mascara. 

Kanaya is already there, waiting to walk forward, all alien beauty that you know Rosey adores, looking at once stoic and tremulous. The two of them come in, and you can't do anything about your mascara except hope in its serious waterproof qualities. 

You bawl through the vows. Ugly-crying, laughing and hiccuping and sobbing gently. God, they love each other so much. God, your heart hurts. God, they're so perfect together that you want to just throw up. They're beautiful, the vows are borderline sarcastic and ridiculous and just perfect. Karkat hands you a clean hanky mid-way through, his own eyes red and watery, tear tracks down his cheeks. You're going to hug the shit out of him when this is over. 

It's too hard, with the joy and love in the room, not to laugh.

***   
The reception was what you had been dreading. It takes almost an hour to get from the ceremony to the reception, even though they're barely a kilometer apart. There are a LOT of photos, Dave competing with the actual professional carapacian photographer that Rose and Kanaya had hired, both giving increasingly frantic directions for groupings. You're not exactly sure who some of these pictures are _for_ , since everyone who matters is already here, but it delays the reception enough that you can try to calm down about it.

It's a tricky thing, calming down about this. 

The thing about the reception is this: you love champagne. The other thing about the reception is this: everyone is so wrapped up in each other, they're probably going to forget to check on you. No one will know if what's in your glass is sparkling apple juice, like it ought to be. The third thing about the reception is this: you've been cry/laughing for so long that you're shakey and weak-feeling and you don't know how to make your insides feel peaceful without a drink. That's not a coping skill you ever had the chance to develop. 

The plan had been to walk into the reception in the same pairs that you came into the ceremony with, but Dirk breaks from script sometime between the millions of photos and the actual doorway of the banquet hall. He gets your elbow, all gentlemanly as shit, and you sniff and roll into him, pressing your face against his shoulder for a second, his boutonniere tickling your nose. He gives you a second, gives your arm a squeeze, and lets you put weight on him as you pull yourself straight upright. 

You walk in together, arm in arm, and Rose and Kanaya come just after you. 

There's loving applause as they walk in, all the way from the door to their spots at the head table. You and Dirk are seated next to each other, but he disappears for a minute after you sit down at Rose's left hand. 

He comes back with sparkling apple juice in two delicate crystal flutes. One-handed, he clinks them together, then hands you one. 

***  
There's something to be said for being the sober one in the room. Not the _only_ one, mind- Rose is, and Dirk has also abstained. You think that's largely for your sake, but thinking so makes you feel too watery and grateful and you don't want to get into the feels just now, thanks. 

"It gets easier," Rose tells you, tapping her green nail against your glass. The toasts are done, the guests are trickling out, the party is winding down. "I don't really sit around wanting it anymore. You're going to get to that point." 

You don't really want to talk about it on this, the day of your daughter's wedding. But you can't snub Rose, not about this. 

"You stopped even later than I did," you point out. You fiddle with your glass. You've always like having a glass to fiddle with. "I don't see how you got all good at it so fast, and now you're... where you are." This is hard to articulate. You don't have the vocabulary. 

"We go at our own rates. All our motion is really forward motion. If we're moving forward with being alive, we're doing great." 

"But you don't even want it anymore." 

"No," she confirms. "I thought I might, but I honestly don't." 

"Is it because true love cures us? You've got her now, so you're all better?" You try not to sound bitter. You're honestly not. It's just a theory you're working with lately: what does Rose have access to that you don't? Is that it? 

Rose sneaks a look at Kanaya, visibly adoring. "Maybe," she says, momentarily a little distracted. She comes back to. "But I don't think that's all it is. You've done so much already, do you give yourself credit for that? How far you've come?" 

You think about that for a minute, and look away. 

***  
Cleaning up with John and Jade turns out to be enormous fun. They're both abusing their powers and sending tables and giant bouquets flying around the room, and it's an excellent game of dodging the falling silverware and trying to gather up all the small detritus that John's big windy thing strews about the room. It takes almost an hour, even with powers, and Jade does some spacey thing to squash everything left over into easily-stored miniature versions. It looks like dollhouse furniture that she's chucking in a bag, by the end. "For the next wedding," she says with a cheeky wink. 

The crates of leftover champagne seem to vanish into nonexistence when Jade gets to them. She gives you a look. "They're somewhere else," she tells you. 

You think you can accept that.


End file.
